1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a method of forming portions of fibrous material, in particular tobacco, and of removing the same by an (endless) conveyor having at least one path of holders for a respective portion, it being the case that the holders are filled with individual portions of the contents at least two filling lines of one or more filling stations, and that, prior to the individual filling operations, individual portions of the contents are weighed and weighed portions which satisfy the predetermined conditions—acceptable portions—are filled cyclically into the holders and weighed portions which do not satisfy the predetermined conditions are detected and ejected as defective portions. The invention also relates to an apparatus for implementing the method.
2. Prior Art
An apparatus which operates using such a method is described, for example in German Patent Application DE 33 16 176 A1. In this document, individual buckets of a bucket chain are filled with tobacco portions at filling stations. The individual filling operations take place in a certain cycle in dependence on the speed of the buckets of the bucket chain which are conveyed past the filling station. The disadvantage with the solution presented in DE 33 16 176 A1 is that individual buckets of the bucket chain may remain empty if a plurality of weighed portions which do not satisfy predetermined conditions for example ones which are heavier or lighter than a predetermined desired weight, are detected. These so-called unacceptable or defective portions are ejected and are not available for filling the buckets. Since the buckets continue to be guided past the filling station, or the corresponding filling line of the filling station, at a predetermined speed, individual buckets remain empty if the envisaged filling line cannot provide an acceptable portion at the point in time envisaged for filling.